console RPG

A consoleRPG is a game for a gameconsole that involves
controlling a character or group of characters with defined
characteristics that change over time. In today's genre-fusion
gaming world, this means the gameplay has a preponderance of RPG
elements, which include:

Levelling-up and Experience Points: For
performing game actions, characters receive 'experience points',
which improve the character's defined characteristics. Usually,
this happens at 'Level-Up', which occurs at set numbers of
experience points.

Equipment: Characters can acquire items,
such as weapons and armour, which when equipped on the
characters modify their characteristics.

Consumableitems: Characters can also
acquire items that provide a one-time effect, such as healing or
a brief increase in power, and are then consumed.

Ability scores: The capabilities of the
characters are expressed in terms of 'scores', which increase
and decrease with various in-game effects (particularly the last
three elements)

Character abilities: Characters can
acquire various abilities, such as magic spells and
special attacks, through the course of the game. Often, these
use Magic Points (see below).

Hit Points: The state of the character's
health is expressed in terms of a number of hit points, which
decrease when the character takes damage. For this to truly
qualify, the maximum number of hit points must somehow vary
through the course of the game.

Magic Points: Some character abilities
consume 'magic points' when used, that only replenish under
certain circumstances, such as resting.

There is also one essential characteristic a game must have
before it is considered an RPG, the necessity of character
development. If a skilled player who starts at the very end of
the game experiences the same difficulty as a player of the same
skill who has played through the entire game, then the game is not
an RPG. An example of a game that fails this criterion is Super
Mario Brothers, where if you find some method of starting the
game right at World 8-4, it is exactly as difficult as it would be
if you played through all of the levels.

The console RPG genre has three major subgenres: action RPGs,
traditional RPGs, and tactical RPGs. Each of these has very
different conventions, and different choices from the elements
above.

Third-person perspective: A traditional
RPG always has a third-person perspective during the main
portion of the game.

Separate combat mode: In a traditional RPG,
combat with enemies takes place in a separate 'mode' from
movement. Usually this takes the form of a separate battle
screen, but sometimes it is just a menu appearing above the
regular field screen.

Separate world map: The world is set up as
'field' areas such as towns and dungeons. When you leave
such an area, you switch to a world map screen where you can
move between different 'fields'. The scale of this screen is
much different than that of the field.

Experience points only from killing
enemies:
Whereas some other RPGs give experience for performing any
actions, all experience points in traditional RPGs are the
result of combat.

Magic: A traditional RPG will have a system
of abilities, usually 'magic spells', that draw upon Magic
Points or an analogous resource.

Strategic combat: Combat in a traditional
RPG is 'strategic' in that the reflexes of the player are
unimportant, and that there is no tactical control of
character location. Usually this is implemented through a
turn-based or Active Time Battle system, controlled using
menus.

These characteristics are not necessarily unique to the
traditional RPG, and not all traditional RPGs necessarily have all
of them, but if a game has all of these characteristics, it is
almost undoubtedly a traditional RPG. For example, Final Fantasy
VII has all of these characteristics, as does Dragon
Warrior. Chrono Cross, on the other hand, has a rather
untraditional magic system and an unconventional levelling system,
although it is still firmly in the traditional RPG category.

Real-time combat: The definitive
characteristic of an action RPG is real-time combat requiring
reflexes and hand-eye coordination. The usual system has the
character walking around and swinging a sword in front of
themself.

No separate combat mode: So long as the
controlled character in an action RPG is in an area with
enemies, the interface is ready for combat. When the character
encounters an enemy, the game does not shift to a separate
screen.

Small parties: Most often, there is only
one player character in an action RPG, who is controlled
directly by the player. When there are other characters they
are usually few in number and controlled by the computer, or
by other players in games that support multiplayer.

The action RPG genre is more varied than the traditional RPG
genre. There is also more debate as to the bounds of the
genre. Most notably, there is disagreement as to whether The
Legend of Zelda and its sequels (other than Zelda II) are
action RPGs or just adventure games. The argument against
calling them RPGs is that there is no levelling system or
ability score system. They do fit the basic characteristics of
the action RPG subgenre, though.

Tactical RPGs

Compared to both action RPGs and traditional RPGs, tactical RPGs have a small fan base. Despite this, it is still a third
major subgenre of console RPGs. The characteristics of a
tactical RPG are:

Turn-based combat: The combat system in a
tactical RPG is always turn-based, to allow the player to make
complicated plans.

Grid-based movement in combat: Combat in a
tactical RPG takes place on a grid where the positions of the
player characters and enemies are significant to their combat
abilities.

Story told mainly in battles: Many tactical RPGs have most of the major plot events occur during combat
sequences. Cutscenes are generally restricted to interactions
between player characters and their allies.

A complicated system of character abilities:
Characters in tactical RPGs generally have a wide range of
abilities available to be developed. These skills often
complement each other in interesting ways

Large parties: Tactical RPGs have
large parties of player characters giving the player a sense
of leading a small army.

Rather than have small parties taking part in small scale,
us-versus-them battles, these games involve significantly larger
parties taking part in tactical combat involving position,
formation, and proximity in the use of skills and spells. The most
famous tactical RPG is probably Final Fantasy Tactics, however
the Fire Emblem and Ogre Battle series are also quite
prominent.

The first true console RPG was Dragon Quest, aka Dragon
Warrior in North America, reducing the complexity of computer
RPGs like Ultima to a form that is more manageable on a
console. The story wasn't anything special and your 'party'
consisted of a single character, and the interface had some rough
edges, but it, directly or indirectly, inspired every
'traditional' console RPG ever made. A more refined version of the
traditional RPG debuted in Final Fantasy, whose nine sequels
have been the backbone of the traditional RPG genre through four
generations of consoles. Final Fantasy introduced a four-member
party, a more complicated story (with plot twists!), and a
simplified interface. Like Dragon Warrior, the emphasis is on
levelling, and the game is quite difficult by today's
standards. Both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy had sequels on the
NES, fixing many of their quirks and adding depth. Final Fantasy
III and Dragon Warrior IV, in particular, have many of the
features of later (SNES-era) RPGs, being released late in the
NES's lifetime.

At the same time, Sega was working on the first RPG for its
Master System console. The resulting game, Phantasy Star, is
perhaps the most refined RPG of the Dawn Age. Using the greater
power of the Master System hardware, the graphics were beyond
anything on the NES, including a first-person pseudo-3D dungeon
interface that has rarely reappeared in traditional RPGs, Shin Megami Tensei on the SNES being a notable exception.

Meanwhile, another type of RPG was being created, this time by
Nintendo itself. The Legend of Zelda is considered by many to be
the origin of the action RPG style of gameplay, with your
character running around a 2D top-down world swatting with your
sword at moving enemies. However, it lacks key RPG elements such
as character statistics and development, as advancement is framed
solely in terms of collecting items, so its classification as an
action RPG is debatable. Zelda
II, on the other hand, has experience points and levels, and
is universally considered an action RPG, despite its
side-scrolling perspective. Both games were tremendously
influential.

The Legend of Zelda also brought another innovation that would have far-reaching implications in the field of console RPGs; battery-backed save memory. Previous games had used a password system to store saved games, so as saved information became more complex, the passwords became more and more unwieldy. (An infamous example of this is the original Japanese Dragon Quest.) Zelda did away with this, freeing developers to produce games with very complex persistent state. RPG developers took full advantage of this capability to make highly-customisable player characters a reality.

Some of the RPGs on the NES were very much in the style of
computer RPGs, many of which were actually ports of successful
computer RPGs (such as Ultima: Exodus) These games had more
complicated interfaces and battle systems, and usually had rather
clumsy controls due to the reduction from a full keyboard to a
mere four buttons.

The Golden Age: 1991-1996

The SNES, along with the Sega Genesis, was the home of the
'Golden Age' of console RPGs. Following the 'Dawn Age' of the
NES, the genre came into its own,
with improved story and characterisation, richer class and level
systems, and high-quality graphics and sound. The Dawn Age series,
such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and Phantasy Star
continued, and new series of traditional and action RPGs
began. Another RPG subgenre, the tactical RPG, emerged during
the Golden Age on both the SNES and Genesis.

The Golden Age began with the release of Final Fantasy IV, or
Final Fantasy II in North America. From the moment you start up
the cartridge in your SNES (or the ROM in a SNES emulator), it is
clear that this is something different than what came before. The
opening seems purpose-designed to show off the difference;
surprisingly orchestral sounding music, Mode 7 world map, and
a named main character with an individual personality all appear
in the first minute. Final Fantasy IV was the first major
traditional console RPG to provide believable and varied
characterisation, including characters that enter and leave the
party, and a plot involving betrayal, love, death, and character
transformation. The think-on-your-feet Active Time Battle system
debuted in FF4, as well as character-specific (rather than
class-specific) special abilities. The added buttons on the SNES
controller permit the interface to be much more comfortable, with
a detailed menu system.

These innovations turned the entire console RPG world on its
head, affecting everyone. Squaresoft would go on to make two
more milestone traditional RPGs during the SNES era, the sweeping
ensemble drama of Final Fantasy VI, and the time travel
classic Chrono Trigger. Final Fantasy VI had a true ensemble
cast, with no clear-cut main character, something that had never
been done before, and has rarely been done since. Also, unlike
previous Final Fantasies, switching between party members became a
matter of player control, rather than being solely a matter of
plot. Chrono Trigger was the most graphically-detailed RPG available in North America, played
on the basic SNES hardware. (Super Mario RPG and Star Ocean
had coprocessor chips, and Tales of Phantasia was Japan only) It was the most detailed and immersive
RPG to date, and was just as epic as FF6.

Other SNES traditional RPGs of note include the Breath of
Fire and Lufia games, both of which spawned ongoing series. The
Dragon Quest series continued but didn't get released in North
America due to the collapse of Enix of America. Super Mario RPG
used the SA-1 chip to push the graphical capabilities of the
SNES, and it, too, has spawned a series (Paper Mario and Mario
& Luigi). Phantasy Star had three sequels on the Genesis
that were successes with those RPG fans who owned a Genesis. The
Sega CD extended the Genesis owner's RPG collection with the
classic, anime-styled Lunar games, which gamed a larger fan base
when remade for the Playstation.

The action RPG was also refined on the SNES. Although the
simplistic but interesting Soul Blazer and the classic Zelda
installment A Link to the
Past, came earlier, 1993's Secret of Mana was the pivotal game
in the evolution of the Action RPG in the Golden Age. In addition
to including the improvements in graphics and sound featured in
Final Fantasy IV, Secret of Mana featured a deep weapon system
and, perhaps most importantly, three-way multiplayer
support. There is a party of three main characters in Secret of
Mana, any or all of which could be controlled by a player, with an
AI mode controlling the characters without a player. A more
detailed plot and deeper characterisation can be found in its
sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3. (Secret of Mana is Seiken Densetsu
2 in Japan) Unfortunately, it was never released in North America
in favour of the lukewarm Secret of Evermore.

North American gamers were cheated of a classic action RPG
again when Terranigma was released, but only in Japan and
Europe. Terranigma was the third part in Enix and Quartet's
Soul Blazer trilogy, consisting of Soul Blazer, Illusion of
Gaia, and Terranigma. Terranigma combined the deeper gameplay
of Illusion of Gaia with the intriguing premise of Soul Blazer;
pieces of the game world are frozen and locked away, and it's up
to the main character to save them and return them to their normal
existence. The initial world map of Terranigma is the trippiest
use of Mode 7 I've ever seen, where the world map is distorted
into the shape of the inside of a cylinder.

The third genre of RPG, the tactical RPG, became a notable presence in the
Golden Age. Unlike with traditional RPGs, these games were more common on the Genesis, with the pioneering Shining Force series
being the first to enter the North American market. The only SNES
tactical RPG released in North America during this period was
Ogre Battle. Tactical RPGs have always been rather sparsely
released, continuing through to today.

The Silver Age: 1996-2000

The Playstation, and to a lesser degree the Sega Saturn,
was host to the 'Silver Age' of console RPGs, marked by
transitions from 2D to 3D, from cartridge to CD-ROM, and
from a niche market in North America to a large part of the gaming
scene. Plot and characterisation came to the forefront of
traditional RPG design, sometimes to the detriment of the
gameplay, and frequently to the detriment of the difficulty. Both
Dawn Age and Golden Age series continued in this period, some
successfully, and some with mixed results.

As with the Golden Age, the Silver Age was started by a Final
Fantasy game. This time, it was Final Fantasy VII. With this
game, Square abandoned Nintendo for the massive storage capacity
of the Sony Playstation's CD-ROMs. Spanning three CDs, Final
Fantasy VII was the largest Playstation game yet, and this
capacity was used to the fullest. Gone were the blocky hand-drawn
backgrounds, super-deformed sprites, and simple overhead
perspective of earlier Final Fantasy games. Instead, your (blocky)
3D polygonal character walked around a prerendered 3D world, with
numerous FMV animations sprinkled around major events. Gone,
too, was the fanciful setting of the previous Final Fantasies,
replaced by a dystopian and thoroughly science-fictional world
with giant elevated cities, airplanes, and evil
corporations taking over the world. Better or worse, it was like
nothing that had ever been done before, and was the first RPG to
sell a million copies in North America.

Another feature of Final Fantasy VII which is very common in
Silver Age RPGs is the minigame. The Gold Saucer in FF7
contains several minigames that you can play for gil or
items. This was enough of a success that just about every RPG
after FF7 has some sort of minigame in it. Sometimes, as in
Xenogears, these minigames would be worthwhile games in
themselves, but often, like in Final Fantasy VIII, they could be
more trouble than they're worth.

Several different graphical styles emerged during the Silver
Age. In addition to traditional 2D games, such as Suikoden,
there were games with different degrees of '3D-ness'. Grandia
and Xenogears are '2 1/2-D', with a 3D-rendered, fully-rotatable
background combined with detailed 2D sprites. Star Ocean: The
Second Story uses a similar method but with prerendered
backgrounds. Perhaps the most common style is the full-3D Final
Fantasy VII style, with prerendered backgrounds and 3D
characters. Beginning with Parasite Eve, much more realistic and
detailed character models were used than the blocky FF7
models.

One new thing for traditional RPGs in the Silver Age was the
emergence of ports of older, Golden and Dawn Age titles to the
newer hardware. All of the SNES Final Fantasy games were ported to
the Playstation, as well as the first two NES titles. Final
Fantasy II and Final Fantasy V were released for the first time in
North America, and Final Fantasy IV received a new, unexpurgated
translation into English. The Lunar games were heavily modified
and updated, and released in elaborate bundles including
soundtracks, 'Making Of' discs, and 'omake'. Eternal Blue even
came with a replica of a main character's pendant.

Some important new series emerged during this time. Square's
deep and epic Xenogears has two prequels on the Playstation 2,
with a plan for four more games. Game Arts's Grandia, originally
released on the Sega Saturn but ported to Playstation for North
American release. Its sequel Grandia II had a similar evolution,
beginning on the Dreamcast and then being ported to Playstation
2. Chrono Trigger acquired a great sequel in Chrono Cross, and
the Star Ocean series finally came to North America with Star
Ocean: The Second Story.

The action RPG was in a relative slump during the Silver Age,
with few new releases during that period. The Castlevania series
of platform games dabbled in action RPG gameplay in Castlevania:
Symphony of the Night, and the Legend of Zelda series had two
installments on the Nintendo 64, the only RPGs on that system
besides Paper Mario and the abysmal Quest 64. The most
innovative action RPG of this period was Vagrant Story, a
realtime-rendered game with a deep and strategic realtime combat
system and a rich system of magic. The true highlight of the game,
though is its detailed system of equipment, where weapons become
specialised through use and modification in 'Workshops' scattered
throughout the game.

Several notable tactical RPGs were released on the Playstation
Final Fantasy Tactics was the first Square tactical RPG released
in North America, and although it was a minor flop when it
originally came out it eventually became one of the most highly
sought-after games on the Playstation. Used copies were selling
for as much as $150 on the secondary market. So it was re-released
in 2001 in the Playstation Greatest Hits series to brisk
sales. Other tactical RPGs of the era were Shining Force III on
the Saturn and Front Mission 3 on the Playstation, which were
both rather minor releases as is common for tactical RPGs.

Since the End of the Silver Age: 2001-Present

The RPG world has been somewhat quieter since the release of the
Playstation 2 and the decline of the original Playstation. The
Playstation 2 has been the primary system for RPGs in the latest
generation, with a few titles being released for the Nintendo
GameCube and Microsoft Xbox. The biggest change in this time
is the resurgence of Golden Age-style RPGs on the Game Boy
Advance. In addition to ports of older titles such as Breath of
Fire, and Nintendo's ubiquitous and much-maligned Pokemon
games, the GBA has been home to the very traditional Golden
Sun games, the novel Mega Man Battle Network action RPGs, and
tactical RPGs such as Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis. On the other end of the scale, massively-multiplayer console RPGs in the vein of the PC game Everquest have emerged recently, beginning with the Dreamcast's Phantasy Star Online. PSO has been ported to other consoles after the death of the Dreamcast, and Square is getting into the game with Final Fantasy XI. At
the moment, there are many RPGs upcoming for all systems, as can
be seen at http://rpgamer.com/games/upcoming.html .